intel's new 8-core 11900k cpu is not
worth buying over the older 10 core
10900k let me show you the differences
in games and applications and explain
why this is the case
the newer 11th gen chip has two fewer
cores than the older 10th gen because it
was originally designed for 10 nanometer
intel had to go with eight cores here as
they back ported it to 14 nanometer and
there simply wasn't space
the older 10900k actually has a 100
megahertz higher all-core turbo speed
both can boost to 5.3 gigahertz in
single threaded workloads though however
intel are claiming 11th gen offers a 19
ipc improvement the 10900k ends up being
cheaper despite having more cores and
more cash
you can find updated prices linked in
the description both processors were
tested in the same system with the msi
z590a motherboard i've tested with 32
gigs of ddr4 3200 memory running in dual
channel at co 14 and with msi's geforce
rtx 3090 gaming x trio graphics card to
minimize gpu bottlenecks
neither cpu comes with a cooler in the
box so i've used my fractal s36aio with
noctua nth2 thermal paste for both
i've tested both cpus at stock so no mce
and with the following allcore
overclocks applied
i was able to run both at the same 5.1
gigahertz over all cores at the same
voltage
however these are by no means finely
tuned overclocks and results will of
course vary based on silicon lottery
i've done
all testing with no power limits which
is the default with my msi motherboard
but also because i'm
interested in just seeing what both of
these can do best case so expect my
results to look better compared to
someone else's using intel's recommended
power limits
with that in mind we'll start out by
looking at the differences in various
applications followed by things like
power draw and thermals afterwards then
we'll look at gaming tests followed by
performance per dollar to help you
decide which of these processes is worth
buying
starting out with cinebench r23 i've got
the stock results down the bottom
and overclocked results above despite
the eight core 11900k being newer
it's not scoring as high in the
multi-core test compared to the 10 core
10 900k
however the difference in these scores
honestly isn't that big considering the
core count difference
where the 11th gen chip sees most gains
here is in the single core score it was
reaching 21
higher when both were at stock speeds so
there might be something to intel's 19
ipc
claims i've also tested the older
cinebench r20 as a lot of people still
use it so you can compare my results
and similar deal here too it's worth
noting that the single core speeds
actually drop with the manual all core
overclocks applied because this prevents
the 5.3 ghz single core speed from being
hit
i've tested the blender bmw and
classroom benchmarks this is a heavily
threaded test so again the 10900k was
able to complete both tasks faster owing
to its higher core count despite that
though with both chips in stock the
10900k was only completing the longer
classroom test three percent faster
which i think is pretty impressive given
it has two less cores
with both overclocked though the 10900k
is now seven percent faster in the same
test
so the gap widens with both at 5.1
gigahertz the v-ray benchmark
is another core heavy rendering workload
again the 10 core 10900k was scoring
higher about nine percent higher with
both its stock and then five percent
higher with both overclocked so this
time the gap between them became smaller
with
overclock the corona benchmark also uses
the processor to render out a scene and
the 10 core 10900k was completing the
task 8 seconds faster both at stock and
when overclocked so more than 10 percent
faster for the 10900k while it also has
25
more cores linux kernel compilation is a
new test that i've added the 10900k was
faster in both cases thanks to the extra
cores and this being another threaded
workload however the gap gets smaller
with both overclocked with the 10th gen
processor just 2 percent faster
handbrake was used to convert one of my
4k laptop review videos to 1080p
the results were much closer together
here with both processors at stock the
10900k was
slightly faster however once both were
overclocked the 11900k was able to beat
the older 10th gen chip despite the
difference to core count adobe premiere
was tested with the puget systems
benchmark tool
and this tests things like video
exporting live playback and more the
scores were extremely close together
here the smallest difference between the
two cpus out of all applications tested
though the new 11900k was scoring
slightly higher
adobe photoshop was also tested with the
puget systems benchmark
i've found this test to be fairly single
threaded dependent and although the 11th
gen option was ahead again the gap is
larger here scoring eight percent higher
with both its stock than 12 percent
higher once both are overclocked i've
used 7-zip to test compression and
decompression speeds and the additional
cores from the 10th gen processor are
allowing it to score higher for both
tests
however the differences in compression
shown in the lighter colored bars were
much smaller compared to decompression
aes
encryption and decryption speed didn't
really change with the overclock however
the newer 11900k
was at least 23 faster for both of these
tests over the older but higher core 10
900k
microsoft excel on the other hand was
quite a bit faster on the 10900k
the extra cores would certainly be
helping though i expect its 25 percent
larger cash to be a contributing factor
here as well
geekbench was seeing excellent single
core improvements the 11900k was
reaching a 25 percent higher score at
stock
and then 27.5 percent higher with both
overclocked i'm not quite sure why the
11th gen single core score rose given
the 5.1 gigahertz overclock should
prevent it going to 5.3 gigahertz
but these results were consistent
otherwise the extra cores on the 10900k
allowed it to score higher in multi-core
though with both overclocked the
difference was extremely minor here's
how the new 11th gen 10900k compares
against the older 10th gen 10900k in
these applications just covered with
both processors at stock the older
10900k was ahead in most of the tests
due to its higher core count
though most of the workloads here are
also multi-core the new 11th gen 11900k
however was ahead in the single core
tests as well as aes encryption
encryption and the adobe tests here's
how the results change with both
manually overclocked to 5.1 gigahertz on
all cores
there's not too much difference but for
the most part the gap between them in
multi-core tests lowers a little this is
probably because the 10900k has a 100
megahertz higher all-core turbo speed
when both are at stock
so with both overclocked to the same 5.1
gigahertz now the 11900 case clock speed
is increasing more compared to the
10900k
we can see this when looking at the
clock speeds being hit in blender the
10900k is 100 megahertz higher at stock
but then with both overclocked they're
the same
so the newer 11900k rises more here's
how total system power draw from the
wall looks with the same blender
classroom benchmark running
a heavy multi-core test with both its
stock the 11900k was using slightly more
wattage despite having fewer cores
however they were close with both
overclocked though the 10900k was now
using more power more power generally
equals more heat however the older
10900k was running warmer presumably due
to the additional cores that are active
the gap between them gets bigger with
both overclocked and it's worth keeping
in mind that both will run with the same
1.375 volts when overclocked here's how
cpu package power was reported in
hardware info during the same test
just to reiterate that i'm not testing
with any default power limits here as my
goal is to see what both are capable of
in a best case
let's get into the gaming tests next
i've tested 8 games at 1080p
1440p and 4k resolutions on both
processors
cyberpunk 2077 was tested in little
china with a straight kid life path
i've got 1080p down the bottom 1440p in
the middle and 4k
up top there were basically no
differences at the higher 1440p and 4k
resolutions
the processor generally matters less
here as the gpu can be better put to
work
the largest difference was seen at 1080p
however it's still small the newer
11900k was just a couple of fps higher
however there was a larger six percent
boost to one percent low here
red dead redemption 2 was tested with
the game's benchmark tool
again close results though just 1 to 2
fps difference at the higher resolutions
is honestly margin of error stuff and
not something you're likely to notice in
practice
even best case 1080p was only reaching 3
percent higher average fps with a newer
11th gen chip
assassin's creed valhalla was also
tested with the game's benchmark however
the results were a bit different
compared to the other games tested this
was the only test that saw higher
average fps on the 10900k at 1080p
so i double checked the results and got
the same numbers it's not a big deal
either way it's less than a 4fps
difference
the 10900k was still ahead at 1440p and
while the averages are within margin of
error at 4k
the 11900k seems to have a larger 10
gain and 1 percent low watchdog's legion
was also tested with the game's
benchmark so you should be able to
perform the same test in a reproducible
manner if you want to compare with what
i've got
basically no differences to average fps
regardless of resolution just a minor
bump to one percent lows with the new
11900k at 1080p
but as is the case in most of the games
this isn't likely something you'll
notice in practice
control is generally a pretty gpu heavy
test which is why again there's no real
change between the two processors at
1440p
and 4k again 1080p is close but the 11th
gen cpu was doing a little better i feel
like a bit of a broken record but again
i doubt it's a change you'd really
notice
i can't say i thought one felt faster
than the other while running through the
test
cs go is an esports title where
differences in frame rate might actually
matter more which is why i decided to
test this older game the 11900k was
reaching seven percent
higher average fps at 1080p the largest
difference out of all eight games tested
granted when you're over 600 fps it's
hard to say how much use this is going
to be
shadow of the tomb raider was tested
with the game's benchmark as a last gen
game this modern hardware is able to get
us
100 fps at 4k even with the highest
setting pricer but best case the 11th
gen processor was only a couple of fps
ahead of 10th gen at 1440p
and 1080p battlefield 5 is another game
i've been testing for years and have a
lot of data
for should you wish to compare granted
this is the first time i've removed the
frame cap at 1080p
in any case like most of the games
tested there aren't any major
differences here
over all eight games tested the newer
11900k was around one and a half percent
faster in terms of average fps at 1080p
so yeah not really anything amazing from
intel's top end chip here the 10900k was
only doing better in assassin's creed
valhalla i'm not exactly sure why at
first i thought maybe it was the
additional cause
however i saw the same pattern when
comparing the 10600k and 11600k too
almost like this test just prefers 10th
gen or something anyway make sure you're
subscribed for that upcoming i5
comparison
stepping up to 1440p and most games were
now better on the older 10900k
however the differences are so small
that once you average everything out the
11900k is less than a percent slower so
like i've been saying
no real differences this continues on at
the higher 4k resolution too just a one
to two percentage difference in either
direction so nothing major at all here
when we factor in price well it's an
easy win for the 10900k in gaming it's
cheaper and performance isn't much
different
there are also cheaper kf versions
available if you don't need integrated
graphics
my 10 900k prices are what's currently
available on newegg
links down in the description the 1100k
600
price is based on leaked retail listings
as i'm making this video before the 11th
gen embargo ends i don't yet know actual
pricing the 539
and values intel's pricing for
quantities of a thousand
so even at those best case values the
10900k is offering better value in
gaming for the most part it doesn't
appear that the core count is making a
difference in most of the games
eight calls that are fast are still
plenty for gaming but that said
it doesn't appear that 11th gen's
productivity gains translate over to
gaming
if gaming is your priority well as we've
just seen both processors perform pretty
similarly
so there's definitely no point upgrading
to the 11900k
if you've already got a 10 900k and if
you're picking one brand new today it's
gonna be hard to recommend the 11900k
if you're more productivity focused then
the extra cores in the 10900k give it an
edge in most workloads
however the newer 11900k does have
better single threaded performance
and it does seem to do better in aes
tests and adobe tests so it depends what
your specific use case is
but apart from that there just doesn't
seem to be that much reason to get the
newer 11900k over the older 10900k
at the end of the day 11th gen just
feels like a bit of a stop gap until
older lake later this year 11th gen was
meant to be 10 nanometer but it was
backported to 14. presumably so intel
have something to compete against ryzen
5000 with given amd has had issues
keeping ryzen in stock
intel could win by default just by
having products on the shelf
but that said ryzen availability has
seemed better over the recent weeks
i'll compare the 11 900k against the
eight core ryzen 7
5800x and 12 core ryzen 9 5900x in
future videos
so make sure you're subscribed for those
upcoming comparisons
otherwise for now you can check out some
of my other cpu comparisons over here or
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scenes videos by supporting on patreon